Using Quicktime Pro

[WildCelt]

Greetings,

I want to start encoding video using h.264 (I've used XviD for many years), and for some reason shelled out $30 to Apple to register Quicktime Pro before I did much research.

Now that I've done that and tinkered with it, I am wondering if I made a bad purchase. Is it even usable? It looks like I cannot even load the codec in my favorite video editing program (or even any other program--it doesn't show up as an available codec in Windows). Do I have to use Quicktime (ugh) to compress? Also, if I am stuck with Quicktime, is there any way to load files compressed with different codecs (say, Lagarith for example)?

I've read the guides and they mention Quicktime Pro, but I see nothing other than mentions--not how to actually use it. I think I am beginning to see why.

Any help/direction is appreciated. Perhaps I should just kiss my $30 goodbye and call it a lesson learned.